My Story at WCBS

Don Champion was a former Reporter working at WCBS in New York and under News Director David Friend and General Manager Peter Dunn.

Last night he shared his story about working at CBS’s O&O and working for Friend and Dunn.

This is my CBS story... I’ve reflected on this photo often in recent years. On one hand, it makes me feel proud that as a news reporter I got the chance to cover huge stories in NYC- the largest and most dynamic market in the country. On the other, it brings back horrible memories of being bullied and discriminated against for being a gay Black man. I look back and often feel naive for not thinking it could happen. I can honestly say I’ve never been discriminated against in the way David Friend and Peter Dunn did me at WCBS-TV. Even before I started, my agent warned me, “be careful, you’re gay, Black and a man. David doesn’t like any of those.” I still question how I got in the door at CBS 2 News- in the end, I think it was fate.

I started as a freelancer in the Spring of 2013. In those days, freelancers worked for about a year before they “proved themselves” and got a contract; the difference was a big jump in pay. In the months that followed my start at WCBS, David Friend would use that freelancer status as a tool to bully, intimidate and tear me down- not only as a reporter but also as a human. I was so stressed working at WCBS I even developed eczema. A brief backstory- I moved to NYC after working in Denver, one of the most respected news markets in the country. My station there demanded that reporters built sources and enterprised. I left Denver the most confident I had been as a journalist… On my first day on-air at WCBS, I infamously scored a market exclusive— surveillance video of a handcuffed suspect who escaped police custody. My colleagues were impressed. Soon, it was clear nothing I could do would impress David Friend. His first complaint was my “on-air presence.” Months later it was my “voice.” When I went to his office and asked for help paying for a voice coach he said no. Trying to do whatever it took to get a contract, I paid for one on my own. I distinctly remember the voice coach telling me during one session that she was confused about what problem the station had with my voice. Looking back, I now know “presence” and “voice” were code; in Friend and Dunn’s eyes, I was too gay.

By the end of my time at WCBS about a year and a half later I was asked if I had “gained weight.” There. Was. Always. An. Excuse. And there were consequences for me. The number of days WCBS offered me to work each week ebbed and flowed- depending on how David felt about me. My life and career were under the control of a bigot. After live shots, I’d get emails from David complaining about little things like a fumbled word on-air. One time, he embarrassed me by berating me loudly in the middle of the newsroom- I truly forget what for. It was so loud and unprofessional that an anchor called me in their office afterward pissed at what they had witnessed. I remember getting on the elevator with Peter Dunn one time and nervously trying to strike up a conversation with him. He ignored me. There were clear double standards for other Black employees behind-the-scenes at WCBS too. So much so that after a Black firefighter died fighting a fire at David’s home- some of us Black employees were hopeful it would cause him to start treating us better. It didn't... After about a year and a half of freelancing, I was told David didn’t feel like “stringing me along anymore” and wouldn’t offer me any more freelance days after the end of the month. I had impressed other managers at WCBS so much so that they- unbeknownst to me- spoke up in my defense and I was called days later and told there was a “change of heart.” By that time, I had also started freelancing at CBS News in the Newspath division and turned the “change of heart” down. Before I left, a manager at WCBS even said to me that they hoped I “knew the problem {at WCBS} was never you.” Those words have stayed in my head ever since and I know what the manager meant.

Sadly, the discrimination didn’t stop at WCBS. At CBS Newspath, word from a manager of me needing to “butch it up” on-air got to me. There was also a complaint about me “queening out” during live shots. When I confided in my VP about this during an incredibly uncomfortable and awkward conversation- she viciously turned against me after being one of my biggest supporters. She had it out for me from that moment on and in July 2017- a few months later- she called my agent and told him she was breaking my contract and letting me go because I “wasn’t her style.” I mention the network part of my story only to drive home the point of how toxic CBS was at the time (I’m told the network is a better place to work now. I truly hope so). My life was upended and my TV news career ruined- starting with the bigotry of the likes of David Friend and Peter Dunn. In a funny twist, WCBS called me in late 2019 with a job offer as a reporter. I declined and thought how desperate they must’ve been to call me.

Looking back, I have regrets. I wish I would’ve sued. I wish I would’ve stood up for myself more, but there’s so much fear involved. I’ve been incredibly blessed in the few years since I left news and it's all reinforced my faith that everything happens for a reason. It’s taken a lot of work to heal, though. Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I was about news and how it was my dream to be a journalist since childhood. A dream and years of hard work stolen from me by blatant bigotry and the sad part is-- there are countless other stories.